“After your report on us came out, four people approached us to express their interest in buying our business. There was a Chinese individual and a hotel general manager,” Weng Hong tells us. But he eventually sold his 50-year-old stall, which his father started in 1949, to a “40-something husband-and-wife” duo.

According to Weng Hong, whom we spoke to over the phone in Mandarin, the “husband” will be actively involved in running the stall. In true uncle fashion, Weng Hong proudly tells us the man’s name is “Ah Heng” when we enquired about his name. “I don’t know his full name! You can just call him Ah Heng!” he booms jovially.

The uncle had chosen Ah Heng to take over his very popular biz as he felt an affinity with the chap, whose dad ran a zi char hawker stall. “I can’t work anymore because my leg hurts, but he wanted Yong Huat to fa yang guang da [a Chinese idiom that means to bring something to great heights],” chirps Weng Hong, who adds very vaguely that Ah Heng “also sells coffee at Shenton Way. He says he knows how to do zi char, and he has experience in running a business”. Once the new owner officially takes over Yong Huat on September 1, the stall’s opening hours will be revised to close at around 6pm, instead of 7pm under Weng Hong’s charge. “Ah Heng needs to go off at 6pm to look after his coffee shop. He’s managing both businesses at the same time,” Uncle explains.

In an era where ultra-popular F&B brands like Kay Lee Roast Meat could be sold to new management for as much as $4mil, Weng Hong and Siew Heok sold their well-loved biz for a relatively tame $20,000. “I initially wanted $50,000 for my stall, but due to the Covid-19 situation I had to drop my asking price. I have already decided to retire in September anyway, and I was afraid that there would be no buyers by then [if I was inflexible about the price], so I just took $20,000.”

The sale includes Yong Huat’s recipes for dishes like its famous fried mee sua, hokkien mee and char kway teow, as well as the takeover of its existing stall space at Alibabar The Hawker Bar opposite 112 Katong Mall. “Ah Heng will use my signboard and my unit. Everything lah. The menu and prices will remain the same,” says Weng Hong, though he notes that “the portions are smaller. I saw. My wife and I fry up very big plates”.

Uncle and auntie have been training their successor to cook for two weeks, and will officially hand over the reins to Ah Heng when they retire next Monday (Aug 31). We asked him what he thought of Ah Heng’s chops. “He knows how to cook lah, but his three to four years of cooking experience — how to fight with [our] 50 years?” he chortles candidly. But it seems like Ah Heng has some talent, at least according to our colleague, a regular at Yong Huat who has tried the new hawker’s noodles. She reports: "It's still good lah, just not as shiok as when auntie fries it herself. It's somehow 'cleaner' and less down-and-dirty". Only time will tell if Yong Huat (its name means ‘eternal glory’ in Chinese) will continue to shine.

125/127 East Coast Rd, Alibabar The Hawker Bar, S428810. Tel: 9630-1370. Open daily 9am-6pm.